CB Trouble and the Virgin Whore

After the recent work on the CB350, I was happy to see I had no more oil on the fins. The electric start was a mixed success—on occasion it will spin the motor to life and other times it will do exactly what it was doing before, make a whir and do nothing. I might take a stab in the dark here and go ahead and replace the brushes, although they really look alright, but the bike is rideable, or well, was rideable.

I came back from my Thursday night ride last night and saw a trail of oil drops on the pavement where I had swung the bike around to back it into the garage for the night. A closer look at the bike revealed another oil leak, and this one is much worse than the one before. All the bottom of the engine is covered with oil. It looks much worse near the front sprocket. I need to pull that cover and take a closer look; it could be the seal under there. Nice. Temps are to be in the mid-90s which will make the interior of the garage somewhere in the neighborhood of "inferno."

In the meantime, I am putting my '86 Suzuki Savage into service. Excuse me, I don't believe you've been introduced:

This bike came to me-nonrunning with all sorts of loose pieces and non-functioning parts. One of these days I may tell you the story of putting her back together.

After much blood, sweat, and tears I had it back in reasonably running condition.

After seeing the bike back together, my wife commented that it looked like a "virgin bike" to which I replied "With all the old parts and worn out stuff I with which I cobbled her back together it was more like a 'virgin whore'," and the name stuck. The Savage is a fun ride, but the bike is a little too small for me and it feels cramped. It has plenty of oomph but tops out just past Interstate speeds. It has twice the displacement of the CB, but the same wieght so it can be a blast to ride and the handling is great. This was the first year for the Savage (now known as the S40) and only has a four speed gear box.

The Savage is nothing to look at; I call it my "rat" bike, with mismatched muffler off a H-D Softail, dents in the tanks, dangling wires, and an unexplicably bent rear fender that removes any "chicken strips" on the left of the tire I might have when hitting big bumps; but she gets me from here to there, and all she asks me to do is ignore the smoke coming off the muffler when I stop (She has a slight oil leak right above the header.).

I was going to take the Savage to the Webster bike swap this Sunday anyway, as I need to pick up some cheap mirrors. I only have one on her now I can "kinda" see with (Only one is required in Florida.); the other disintegrated on the road from the vibrations a few weeks ago. Ought to be a fun ride.

[OLD FAITHFUL—UPDATE] I just got back from pulling the sprocket cover on Old Faithful. Turns out all the oil is leaking from the seal on the clutch rod shaft. The seal was cockeyed in its hole, and when I started the CB it was obvious where the oil was coming from. Hopefully, Honda will have the seal; if not I will have to spend some time on eBay. At least it turned out to be a simple thing (The seal is nothing but a little rubber disk that is pressed in from the outside.), as it always seems to be, just about the time I am about to announce that her new name is "Old Faithless." I guess I am the one that needs more faith.

The Culprit—You can see how it is not seating correctly in its recess.

Here's the back side—not much to it.

On my trip to Michigan, I swapped out the front sprocket for one with one more tooth to keep my revs a bit lower if we did any Interstate riding. Now that I have that off to get to the seal I think I am going to put the original sprocket back on to give me a little more zip while riding around home. I can always stick the larger one back on before any long road trips.

Cheers,

Road Dog

"Ride Your Own Ride."